High school boys basketball: Brush stuns North in overtime

If Brush's Jamison Days was looking for a good way to celebrate his 18th birthday, he could have done a lot worse than his performance on Wednesday night.

The Arcs trailed North by as many as 16 points in the second half of the Division I sectional final at Euclid but fought back to get within a possession in the final minute.

After two missed free throws by the Rangers, Days -- his team out of timeouts -- drove down the court and hit a midrange jumper to send the game into overtime. The Arcs (15-8) didn't look back, winning 87-82.

"We've worked on those types of situations a lot in practice, and they executed it to a T," Brush coach Jayson Macauda said. "(Days) had a buzzer-beater last year, and he does it in practice all the time. Some kids just have that mentality that you can't coach. He wants the ball in that situation, and he stepped up to hit a big jumper."

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Days finished with 20 points but may not have been in position to hit a game-tying shot without the effort of Ronnie Ransom, who hit six 3-pointers.

"Days was supposed to set a down screen for Ransom," Macauda said. "He did, but the play went away from him. It came back, and he took one dribble and shot the ball. It was special."

Ransom, scoreless in the first half, hit five 3-pointers in the second. His final one cut North's lead to 70-68 late in the fourth quarter, setting the stage for Days.

"We had to get together as a team on defense to get stops first," Days said. "If you were open, you had to shoot it with confidence. Somebody had to make a shot. I had the ball and my team needed by to make it, so I took it."

Ransom, who also finished with 20 points, hit a 3-pointer to start the overtime period. With four players fouled out, the Rangers (15-9) didn't have the offensive firepower to keep up.

North's Paul Lang scored a game-high 30 points with seven 3-pointers. He made three in overtime to help keep the Rangers from slipping too far behind.

Nurik Eldosov added 13, with 11 coming from the free-throw line, before fouling out. Anton Vrebac chipped in with 10. Ben Josipovic had six points and a team-high six rebounds.

"We made a lot of mistakes defensively and didn't shoot well against their zone early on," Macauda said. "Our kids just kept believing and stayed patient. They just kept clawing and clawing. I'm extremely proud of our nine guys."

The Rangers led, 34-25, at halftime and held a 44-28 lead in the third quarter. Between Ransom's barrage from beyond the arc and North splitting its free throws down the stretch -- shooting 24 of 41 (59 percent) -- Brush went on a 29-20 run in the fourth quarter.

The Arcs had a 41-25 rebounding edge, led by Brandon Dawson's game-high 13. Dawson led Brush with 23 points.

"North has a lot of length in their starting five, and it bothered us in the first half," Macauda said. "They were getting offensive rebounds and Lang went for 30 points. He's had a great career."

Brush advances to a district semifinal, where it will face East Tech on March 6 at 7 p.m. East Tech beat Glenville, 77-73, earlier in the day.

"I think this game says a lot -- that we can beat anybody," Ransom said. "If we put our minds to it and work hard, we can beat anybody."